Seven years' imprisonment: 35-year-old stabs sleeping stepfather in Viersen
A 35-year-old stabbed his sleeping stepfather multiple times with a butcher's knife in Viersen. The Mönchengladbach regional court convicted him of attempted murder and sentenced him to seven years in prison.
Knife attack on sleeping stepfather: Seven years' imprisonment
The Mönchengladbach regional court has convicted a 35-year-old of attempted murder and sentenced him to seven years in prison. According to DER SPIEGEL (Justiz & Kriminalität), the defendant stabbed his sleeping 61-year-old stepfather multiple times with a butcher's knife in the early morning of 9 February. The blade of the knife, approximately 20 centimetres long, broke off on the victim's breastbone in the process.
Afterwards, the perpetrator sprayed pepper spray into his stepfather's face and in doing so also injured his own mother. The presiding judge emphasised that the defendant had treacherously exploited the defenceless and unsuspecting state of the sleeping man. "Whoever stabs a sleeping person in the torso with a large knife with a 20-centimetre blade is acting with intent to kill," he stated.
The victim narrowly survived the attack in Viersen. The 61-year-old pursued the attacker onto the street before he realised that the broken knife tip was lodged in his chest.
No motive for the act could be established in the course of the trial. Whilst the relationship between mother and son had been strained, the relationship with the stepfather was neutral, according to the presiding judge.
The defence had stated that their client suffered from amnesia and only had fragmented recollection of the events. An expert did not rule out that the defendant was under the influence of drugs at the time of the act. The panel therefore classified him as having diminished culpability.
The verdict corresponds to the prosecution's application. The defence counsel had called for a lighter sentence and announced that he would challenge the verdict.